Reader Interactions

Comments

As someone who was involved in writing and organizing the Statement on Jewish Vitality, I do want to indicate my general support for your ideas and thinking. Here’s the but. But … the Statement focuses on a very specific and defined problem: the decline in the number of Jews who are counted in the “Jewish Middle”. These are the Jews active in Jewish life, yet are not Orthodox. If one counts such Jews in their 60s, 50, 40, and 30s, their sheer number decline.

Now, most of the reason for the decline can be attributing to demographic behavior. Like others, Jews are marrying later. Like others, many never marry. Like others, they marry outside their group in large number. And, like other Americans, they have a number of children well below the number needed for population stability, even without all the troubling features of their marital behavior.

So, making Judaism better and more attractive and so forth (in line with your very good ideas and those of many other colleagues and friends who have written), will have only marginal and very distant effects upon population patterns. Rather, we have evidence that almost all forms of Jewish education (so-called formal and informal) produce higher rates of marriage, larger numbers of Jewish children, and, possibly other beneficial effects as well. Why can’t we get behind a pro-Jewish education agenda, even as we are inspired and instructed by the good ideas you advance?

Primary Sidebar

Join The Conversation

What's the best way to follow important issues affecting the Jewish philanthropic world?
Our Daily Update keeps you on top of the latest news, trends and opinions shaping the landscape, providing an invaluable source for inspiration and learning.